THE ASBESTOS HILL - IMORDENHAM STORY - Engineering and Construction Of Plant and Wharf Facilities

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 69, No. 775, 1976

F. S. Thurner, District Chief Engineer—Materials Handling, Fenco Consultants Limited, Montreal, Quebec

This paper describes the engineering and construction activities of the "design-build" project awarded to the joint venture of Foundation-Comstock-Janin for the construction of the plant and wharf facilities, camp site, power plant and all supporting services. As a member of the Foundation Group of companies at that time, Fenco acted as consulting and design engineers for the project. Particular emphasis is given to the problems which adversely affected design and construction activities due to prevailing arctic conditions and the remote location of the project. The paper also describes the approach taken in the investigation of the site and soil conditions as well as the selection of the special structures for the 225,000-ton-capacity fibre storage building, the wharf structure for 50,000-dwt vessels, and the 1,000-tph-capacity reclaiming and ship-loading facilities. It further covers the logistics problems and the scheduling activities related to the short duration of the shipping season, and the transportation of equipment and materials by sea as well as by air.